Bubblegum Crisis: The Next Generation part 2
by Purple Knight Saber
Summary: Yumeko's gotten the hang of fighting Boomers and balancing that with schoolwork...or so she thinks. Friends, plays, Boomer battles, nosy schoolmates wondering about her injuries...how is she to deal with it all?
1. Meet Michiko

I had barely started part 2 when the shooting at my school occurred. Took a few months for me to get going again, but anyway... Here is part 2, written between April and December of 1999.

* * *

Oh, how I loathed school.

Hey, just because I had a new job as a Knight Saber doesn't mean I was allowed to forget about my education. Still had to go to school, do loads of homework, not to mention being bored out of my skull all day long. I mean, how could someone NOT fall asleep while listening to the teacher lecture us for two hours straight about the structure of an atom? I couldn't see why we had to learn about that sort of shit, anyway. When in the world would we be using that sort of thing? Unless all of us were to become scientists or some crap like that, I just didn't see the point of it all.

Anyway, I sat there in class while the teacher, Mrs. Sasaki, handed out a math quiz. I ran my eyes over the page. Thirty-five questions, all on calculus. And only thirty minutes to do them. Had to show all the work too. Ugh. How the hell was I supposed to do this stuff?! Not like I could just say to the teacher 'sorry, I couldn't study last night cuz I was out fighting Boomers.' No, that wouldn't work. I sighed and tapped my pencil on the desk. What to do, what to do. I closed my eyes and tried to think. Calculus...just another useless tool in life, just another waste of time. Now art class I didn't mind. Same with music. But science and math...that was a different matter entirely.

"Huh?" My eyes snapped open as I felt something tap me on the head. Looking up, I saw Mrs. Sasaki standing next to me, a ruler in hand.

"Are we sleeping in class again, Ms. Asagiri?" she inquired while some other kids nearby snickered.

"Uh...no ma'am," I answered hastily. How long had I kept my eyes shut?

"All right." She walked back to her desk and turned to the rest of the class. "Ten minutes left." _Shit! Ten minutes?!, _I thought. And I only had three problems done. Oh well, another flunked test. Wasn't my first, wouldn't be the last. I tried to finish up the rest, but I was nowhere close to done when Mrs. Sasaki told us to hand in the quizzes.

"So, how do you think you did?" a classmate, Michiko, asked me after school.

"I'm guessing another F," I said, pulling on my motorcycle helmet.

"You should study more."

"Maybe I would if I saw a point to learning all those numbers."

"Well, I know something that'll take your mind off that." She handed me a flyer for an upcoming audition for a play. My eyes widened.

"_Romeo and Juliet_?"

"Yup. Thought you'd be interested. The auditions are tomorrow and Friday. You're probably gonna try to get the part of Juliet, aren't you."

"I'll think about it." I'd always liked acting, ever since I was a little kid. Whether the play was one about a bunch of geisha girls or a reenactment of World War II, I tried out for them all. Got a part every time, too. I handed the flyer back to Michiko. "I gotta get going."

"Ok." She took the flyer. "See you tomorrow, Yumeko."

"Later," I called back as I sped away. _Romeo and Juliet, huh?, _I thought. _That'll be a nice change from fighting Boomers, that's for sure. Wonder if I'll get to be Juliet._ I smiled at the thought. _Better not get my hopes up. There'll probably be tons of girls trying out for that part. Maybe I could try out for the part of Nurse instead...nah. I'll go for Juliet. No reason why I can't get that part!!_

* * *

"Oh, you're trying out for a school play?" Nene exclaimed when I told her.

"Yeah. Auditions are tomorrow and Friday and I don't wanna screw up my lines. Could you give me a hand?" I asked. That was the one thing that I had trouble doing when it came to plays; memorizing the lines. It was probably why I'd never managed to land a lead role in anything.

"Sure! I think I still have a copy of that somewhere..." She stopped. "Um...which play was it again?"

"_Romeo and Juliet_."

"Oh, I loved reading that when I was in school! Dying just so they could be with each other...isn't that romantic?"

I helped Nene dig through some boxes in her closet, finding some interesting things while at it. I found some old dolls, school essays, little kids clothes...I couldn't believe she'd saved all that through the years. I also found many books, but none of them were what I needed.

"Find it yet?" Nene asked.

"Not yet...huh?" I picked up an old book that had a broken lock on it. A diary, perhaps? I asked her.

"Yeah, that's a diary. Don't all girls have diaries when they're young?" she joked. I flipped through the pages. Nearly all of them were filled up. When I came to the last entry, I looked at the date. 13 August 2038. I burst out laughing. "What's wrong with you, Yumeko?"

"You still had a diary when you were in your early twenties?" I laughed, trying to catch my breath, I was laughing so hard. Her face turned as red as her hair.

"What's wrong with that?"

"I guess when Linna said you were a little childish back then, she was right!"

"Let's just look for that book," she said, obviously wanting to get off the subject, and went back to looking through a box.

"Ok," I said, secretly stashing the diary in my backpack at the same time. I knew it was wrong, but maybe Mom had told her something about who ambushed her. I knew it was a very slim possibility, but I was dying to know the details of that time, even if I didn't show it. After I was done reading it, I would put it back without Nene ever knowing it was even gone. Yes, that just might work.

"Here it is!" Nene exclaimed, holding up her copy of _Romeo and Juliet_. She wiped the dust off it and flipped through the pages to make sure none of them had fallen out. She handed it to me. "Hope this helps."

"Thanks, Nene," I said, taking it. "You sure you don't mind lending me your copy?"

"Not at all. It's no trouble at all, really."

I stood up and stretched. "Well, I have to get going. I'll catch you later, ok?"

"All right," she said, opening the front door for me. "Tell Priss I said hi."

"I will," I promised, walking out the door.

"Maybe I can take you out to lunch this weekend or something. We should spend more time together, after all."

"I'd like that. Bye," I said, waving to her. She smiled and waved back as I walked down the hallway towards the elevator. Once I was in the elevator, I took Nene's diary out of my backpack and looked at it. It was just a beat-up-looking thing with yellowing pages and hearts all over the cover, nothing real special or anything. _Yup, that's her taste, all right_, I thought, laughing. I opened the book to the first page. The date read 4 September 2037. I read the entry for that date:

_Today's been just another boring day for me. Go to work, fill out papers all day, then come home and pig out on cheesecake. Honestly, I have to get out of this rut my life is stuck in. Linna won't stop teasing me about my weight. I swear, it's not like it's HER problem or anything, so why the heck does she have to tease me about it all the time?! Well, at least Priss isn't joining in. She can't anyway. She's still on her tour. I think she's supposed to come home in a week or two. I can't wait!!_

_Leon told me today that he thinks the A.D. Police is going to be shutting down soon. "We were created to protect the city from Boomers," he says, "and if there aren't any around, then this whole place is gonna be flushed down the drain soon." I hope what he says isn't true. I've been a part of ADP for the past six and a half years! They can't shut down now! What job would I be able to get if they did? I try to tell myself to calm down, that ADP won't shut down, that everything's gonna be just peachy, but I can't help but panic. Oh, well. Won't be able to do anything about it if A.D. Police does go pop. I'll just have to wait and see what happens._

By the time I was done reading that entry, the elevator had long since stopped, and several people were standing there, waiting for me to get off. I blushed with embarrassment.

"Uh, sorry!" I said quickly, stuffing the diary back into my backpack and running out. I hurriedly put on my helmet and sped home, wondering what secrets Nene's diary could possibly hold. I'd have to brace myself, in case I found anything I didn't expect to find.

* * *

I sat down at the desk in my bedroom, taking Nene's diary out of my backpack and setting it down on the desk. Mom said she had to go to a meeting to help plan things for her upcoming tour, so this would be a perfect opportunity to read the diary without getting caught. I opened it to the next entry, but didn't read yet. I couldn't believe I'd stooped so low as to steal a good friend's personal thing, but I didn't want to bug Mom about it. She was still sensitive about the whole thing. She'd said before that she'd tell me about it when I'm old enough to understand, but here I was at sixteen, and still she hadn't told me. _Aren't I old enough yet?, _I asked myself, annoyed that she was keeping it stuffed inside. _She's probably afraid of hurting me, I'm willing to bet. But I don't see how anything can surprise me anymore. After all, I've already killed a few Combat Boomers and all. Oh well, if she wants to keep it to herself, that's her business, not mine._

After contemplating for a few minutes whether this was the right thing to do or not, I decided to go ahead and read. The sooner I was done, the sooner that I could return the diary and the less chance of Nene finding out. I spotted the next entry and read.

_Priss came home from her tour today, _the entry for 10 September 2037 started out. _Me, Linna, and Sylia went over to the airport to meet her, and geez were there a lot of other people waiting for her! Probably just autograph seekers, but the police held them back so they wouldn't mob her when she got off the plane. Anyway, we just stood there for about an hour waiting for the plane to land; I'm guessing it probably ran late because of all the fans holding Priss up (laugh). _

_Well, after what seemed like a lifetime, we looked out the window and saw the plane land. Everyone rushed to the windows, hoping to get a glimpse of her through the plane window; no such luck. A few minutes later, we saw Priss, wearing her usual street clothes and sunglasses. I jumped up and down, shouting her name. Took her a second to find us, but once she did, she took off her sunglasses, smiled, and shoved her way through the crowd towards us. I ran towards her, shouting her name again._

_"Priss!" I finally reached her and gave her a huge hug. Oh, I was so glad to see her! She'd been on tour for the past year, going to New York, Berlin, Moscow, those kind of places. I'd wanted to go to all of her concerts, but I couldn't afford it, so I'd only managed to go to the one she had in Tokyo._

_"Hi!" she said. "Musta missed me, huh?"_

_"Yeah! It just hasn't been the same without you here."_

_"Nene's been crying for you every night for the past year," I heard Linna joke as she and Sylia walked up behind me._

_"I have not!" I snapped._

_"Oh yes you have. Well anyway, Priss, how about I take you out to dinner? Call it my 'welcome home' gift."_

_"No, how about I take YOU out? I can actually afford it now," Priss teased._

_So Priss took all of us out to dinner. We went to one of those fancy-shmancy restaurants where just an appetizer costs 3,000 yen. I couldn't believe the prices! I'd probably use up my life's savings just to eat dinner here! Just about lost my appetite just looking at those prices, but Priss said to choose whatever I wanted; it was her treat. _

_Anyway, Linna kept asking questions about her tour, who she met, and if there were any cute guys that she'd met. That's Linna for you. Priss said she met plenty of famous people, but it didn't matter to her; she said she'd rather be with her friends. Suddenly, this little kid walks up to her, all big-eyed and stuff, and asks, "Are you Priss?" Priss stopped talking, looked at the little girl, and bends down to her, all smiling, saying, "Yes I am." The girl then says, "Well, um, Miss Priss, would it be ok if I had your autograph?" I saw the girl's mom a few tables away telling her not to bother her, but Priss, being that she loves kids and all, took out a pen and signed the picture that the kid held. The girl then hugged her, said thanks, and went back to her table. Normally she doesn't give out autographs, but for a little child, I suppose she'd do anything._

_After dinner, while we were all walking out to our cars, I asked Priss when she'd be starting on her next CD. She said not for a while; she wants to just kick back and relax right now. I don't blame her. All that traveling around MUST make a person want to take it easy for a few years (laugh). Well, I'm just glad she's back now. Just get things back to, well, as normal as they could be._

_20 September 2037_

_Sylia just opened another Silky Doll shop a few days ago. Appears that her lingerie is getting to be pretty popular around here. I think this is the third one she's opened in the past few years. I'm starting to wonder just how far it'll expand. Farther than my career, that's for sure._

_Well anyway, we had another one of our training sessions today. Went and played some paintball games at Survival Shot again. And yes, Priss and Linna lost once again and had to pay for dinner once again (laugh). They should come up with some better tactics if they don't wanna keep losing. Oh well, free food for me (laugh). But I'm starting to wonder what the point is of continuing our training. I mentioned that at dinner and Priss pointed out that it's been only two years since we broke up, and that the 'Boomer vacation', as she puts it, probably won't last for too much longer. From the looks of it, Linna and Sylia seem to agree with her. If that's true, then I'll just have to keep a lookout for any Boomer incidents from ADP HQ. It would be nice to see some action, I guess..._

I yawned and stretched. It was getting late, and if I wanted to get a part in that play, I'd have to get some sleep. Couldn't go for an audition if I was still half-asleep. Then it struck me.

I hadn't even taken a look at the book yet.

_Well, too late now, _I thought, cursing myself out for having forgot about it. There were two days for auditions, after all. I'd have plenty of time to look through the book later. So I got into my usual bedtime apparel -- a large shirt and some boxer shorts -- and climbed into bed. _I wonder what kind of stuff I'll find in that diary, _I wondered as I drifted off to sleep. _Must be something in there that Mom told Nene and nobody else. There must be..._

* * *

I stood in the auditorium after school, watching other people trying out for _Romeo and Juliet. _So far, people had mostly tried out for -- go figure -- either Romeo or Juliet, but there'd been a few that tried out for Tybalt, Mercurio, or Benvolio. Michiko stood there with me, wanting to try out also.

"I'm not gonna try out for Juliet like everything else, though," she reminded me. "I'll try to get the part of Nurse. She's the one that watches over Juliet, after all. And she doesn't have that many lines either. Maybe since you have a problem with memorizing lines, Yumeko, you should probably try out for a lesser role."

"No way," I said. "I've been working on my lines, and there's always room for improvement, right?"

"Right, but you've been saying that for as long as you HAVE tried out for plays," she said, laughing.

"Oh, very funny. But this time it's the truth. I'll get that part no matter what."

"But remember..."

"Remember what?"

"If you do get the part of Juliet, you'll have to do a love scene with whoever is Romeo."

I grimaced. Ugh. I forgot about that part. And what if...no, he wouldn't try out for this. Masahiro would never get that part. But then again, since I was trying out, there just might be a chance he would too. _Probably only trying out because he wants a love scene with me, _I thought, shuddering at the thought of calling Masahiro 'my dear Romeo.'

"You know what part you're going to do for this?" I asked.

"Yeah. Have all my lines memorized and everything. This'll be a cinch. You just watch."

"I'll watch, I'll watch, trust me."

As the kids who had just done their auditioning left the stage and sat down, a teacher called out the next person's name.

"Michiko Ishiodori, you're next." Michiko's eyes widened as she stood up.

"Wish me luck," she said, smiling as she walked towards the stage.

"Already am."

* * *

"You were great," I complimented as Michiko and I walked outside.

"You think so?" she asked. "I dunno if I was all that great..."

"Bull. You're gonna get that part for sure. No one else could outplay you as Nurse in a thousand years!"

She laughed. "Aw c'mon, you're just kidding me."

"Why would I be kidding you? I'm telling the truth."

"The results of the auditions get posted next week, don't they? We'll get to see if you got Juliet's part then!"

"I'm telling you, you're gonna have that role. Just wait."

"We'll see."

We both walked to my motorcycle, me jabbering on about how Michiko was sure to land the role as Nurse, while she said we'd just have to wait and see. I asked her if she needed a ride home, which she said she did, and so I offered her one.

"You sure? I don't wanna be too much trouble for you."

"It's ok, Michiko. You can use my helmet if you want to."

"No, no, it's ok. You should wear it."

"I'm hard-headed as it is," I joked. "I don't need it."

"Well, if you insist," she said, reluctantly taking the helmet and putting it on. "You sure you'll be fine without it?"

"Of course I will. Better get on or I'll leave ya behind."

"Oh, Yumeko..." she laughed.

She got on, and then we sped off, leaving school behind until the following day would beckon us back to learn some more of life's stupid lessons. Michiko lived about six miles away from our high school, and although there were several other schools closer to where she lived, she said she wouldn't want to go anywhere else. I wouldn't want to either, although I hated several of the teachers there with a passion, Mrs. Sasaki notwithstanding.

On the way to her apartment, we stopped and bought some soft pretzels for a snack. As we ate, Michiko wanted to ask a few things.

"I've been thinking, Yumeko..."

"What is it?"

"Priss goes on tour again in April, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"That's when our senior year begins. Are you gonna be traveling around with her, or are you gonna stay here?"

"The sooner I'm out of high school, the better. I do like going touring with her, but if I skip that whole year just to go on tour with her, I'd have to come back only to have to make up my senior year anyway. If I stay here, I'll be able to get it over and done with."

"True. Oh hey..."

"What now?"

"Have you ever seen the Knight Sabers actually fight a Boomer?"

I nearly choked on my pretzel.

"No," I coughed, banging on my chest to get some air. "Why...why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering, because I've seen them. With my own eyes."

"R...really?" I asked, trying not to act too surprised. Just the week before, a Boomer had gone nuts just a half-block from her apartment. I'd been hoping that she hadn't got caught up in it, but when she showed up for school the next day, I thanked God ten times over.

"Yeah. I could see 'em from my bedroom window. They just came and trashed the sucker. The purple one does a pretty good job at it, too."

"The purple one?"

"Yeah, I mean, for an amateur. When the Knight Sabers were fighting Boomers in the '30's, there was only the white, blue, red, and green ones, right? There was no purple one until they reappeared six weeks ago. Kinda makes a person wonder how they find new recruits for their group, doesn't it?"

I couldn't help myself from paling at her words. Damn, I hope she hadn't seen anything that would connect me and the purple Saber... Wouldn't that be just great; not even two months on the job, and someone would already figure out who the purple Knight Saber was? I'd be screwed over for sure...

"Are you all right, Yumeko? You don't look so good," Michiko observed.

"What? Oh, um, I guess I'm just tired from staying up all night reviewing the lines for that play."

"You should get more sleep. Can't act if you're asleep, y'know."

I laughed. "That wouldn't be too good, would it?"

She looked at her watch for the time. "We should go."

We both finished up our pretzels, got on my bike -- Michiko using my helmet again -- and drove down the street. I ended up having to take a different route to her apartment because the Boomer had trashed the street I normally took to get there.

Almost at her apartment, I suddenly heard something in my back pocket start beeping. It was the pager Sylia had given me to use so in case there was an emergency, she could contact me.

"SHIT!!" I cursed aloud, slamming on the brakes and stopping abruptly.

"What's wrong?!" Michiko asked, alarmed.

"Something just came up. Do you mind walking the rest of the way home? I'm really sorry, but I have to go."

"Well...ok. Don't forget your helmet," she said, taking it off and handing it to me.

"Thanks, Michiko," I said, putting it on. "I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok. Bye, Yumeko."

"Bye," I yelled as I turned around and drove down the street, Michiko waving to me. _Dammit, dammit, dammit, _I thought. _This is the fourth Boomer in three weeks!! How many of these things are there gonna be?! Talk about Genom wanting to get back in the act, geez..._

* * *

Pulling up in front of Sylia's building, I immediately ran inside and downstairs. When it came to fighting Boomers, we had to get out there as soon as possible to minimize the damage and casualties inflicted. I wasn't in a hurry for that reason, though. I was hurrying because I loved fighting Boomers; it let out a lot of stress, plus I hardly ever got hurt. Trouble was, I couldn't exactly go out and boast to everyone, 'Hey, guess what I did yesterday!!' It kinda sucked, but oh well, life gets like that sometimes. But to actually be part of a vigilante group...now THAT doesn't happen 'sometimes.'

I reached the door and put my hand on the fingerprint scanner. After a second, it beeped and said on the bottom of the screen, "WELCOME, YUMEKO." Then I hurried inside, only to catch everyone else in the middle of dressing. I blushed.

"Er, sorry," I apologized.

Linna pulled up her innerwear, fastened it, and shrugged. "You don't need to apologize. We're in a hurry. Now, come on and suit up."

"Right."

So we did our usual thing: strip down, suit up, pile into the equipment van, and head out. Sylia filled us in on what Boomer we'd be against this time: a BU-33B Combat Boomer, one of the newer things Genom had come up with. She said the SWAT team came in and tried to take it out, but even they couldn't destroy it, and it ended up wiping most of THEM out, killing two-thirds of them so far.

"They can't do anything right," Mom said aloud, leaning back and folding her arms behind her head.

"They're trying their best," Nene said. "Without any K-suits, how good do you expect them to do? They're not exactly us, you know."

"They proved that a long time ago."

"All right," Sylia interrupted. "We're almost there, now listen up. This isn't just a 55C like we were against the first time. This is a BU unit, so it has considerably more firepower and is considerably more dangerous. It's like being against about ten 55Cs at once. I want you all to be extra careful this time, do you understand?"

"Roger," I responded.

Sylia turned to Nene, who was at the computer terminal. "Nene, you stay and monitor things from here, ok?"

"Right."

"Let's go," she said to the rest of us.

Wandering around the streets, I scanned for the Boomer, but kept coming up with nothing. Where in the world was this thing? Nene had said she'd spotted it in this area, but... Maybe this thing couldn't be scanned? No, that couldn't be right. If she'd been able to spot its location, then it must be able to be scanned for. Maybe my scanner was broken.

"Nene, are you sure you said it was here?" I asked over the comm.

"Yes, Yumeko," she replied. "It should be just a short distance from you."

"My scanners aren't picking anything up, though."

"Well, keep searching."

I sighed. "Fine. But if the scanner is broken..."

"We checked them before we left. Everything's in working order."

"Are you SURE it's here?"

"Yes!! Now look for it before—"

Oh, what timing Nene had. Before she could finish what she was saying, I heard a loud explosion not too far away. _Oh God, _I thought, spinning around to face it. From behind a building, I saw smoke starting to rise.

"It's here!!" I heard Linna scream over the comm. "Get over here, quick!!"

"Um, never mind, Nene," I said, disconnecting. Shit...I had to get over there before Linna got hurt. Oh, that bastard would pay if it touched anybody. Opening my flight wings, I launched myself into the air and flew towards the explosion. Immediately, there was another one, throwing me off guard and making me lose my balance in the air for a moment.

"Linna, are you ok?!" I yelled over the comm. All I got was static. This wasn't good. I slapped my helmet on the side, trying to clear up the static, but to no avail.

"Linna, answer me!!" Just more static. I started to get frantic.

I landed near the explosion site and looked around, running my scanner at the same time for her. After a few seconds, it beeped and indicated she was just ahead. I ran towards her, and gasped when I saw her; she was sprawled out on the pavement, her breathing coming in deep gasps, her shoulder covered in blood. I trembled with fear as I prayed that it wasn't as bad as it looked.

"Linna!!" I bent down and examined her. I wasn't any doctor, but from the looks of it, she'd been hit with a pretty powerful blast and ended up being pretty badly injured by it.

At the sound of my voice, she lifted her head a little and looked up at me.

"Y...Yumeko...?"

"Yes, it's me," I said, trying not to let the tears that started to well up in my eyes blur my vision too much. "You feeling ok?"

"Don't let it...sneak up on you. It's pretty strong..." She tried to get up, groaning when she leaned on her injured shoulder for support. I put that arm around my shoulders and helped her up.

"I better get you back to Nen—" Suddenly, I felt something slam into me hard from behind. I screamed and fell to the ground, taking Linna with me, my back screaming with pain. What the hell was that?!

"So you're the new kid on the block, huh?" I heard a deep voice ask. I turned onto my back and looked up at its owner: the BU33-B we'd been chasing.

"That'd be me," I answered, wincing at the burning pain in my back.

"You shoulda stayed in the little leagues, kid. You're playing with real fire now."

"Who are you calling a kid?" I snapped, jumping up and taking a swing at him. The bastard didn't even do anything. He just caught my fist in mid-air, grabbing it by my wrist, and started squeezing.

"You, kid. Maybe you should just go home and play with your little toys with the other kiddies." He squeezed harder on my wrist, making me groan with the pain. I tried to yank away from him, but he was too strong. I cried out again as he squeezed my wrist even harder and picked me up by it, dangling me in the air.

"Let go!!" I aimed my other arm at its head, about to fire one of my discs through it, when he went and grabbed it, too.

"You're pathetic," he laughed. "I don't know why I'm bothering with you." He tightened his grip on me. "Maybe I should play with your other friends. By the way, weren't there more of you besides your little green friend?" I looked back at Linna, or at least tried to, seeing that she was just now getting up.

"Don't you touch her!!" I yelled, kicking it in the stomach using my Leg Bombers, which didn't help matters any. Tightening his grip on my wrists even more, I screamed as I felt my right one snap and as a wave of pain shot up my arm, almost causing me to pass out, it was so great.

"Oh, I think I will. I haven't had my fun with her yet." He dropped me and before I even hit the ground, kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me and sending me crashing into a wall.

Trying to get my breath back, I slowly stood up, my whole body aching from the impact. I saw the Boomer turn to Linna and head towards her. I couldn't let it hurt her more than it already had. This was more than I could handle. I tried to yell to her to look out, but it was too late. Just as she turned around to face it, the Boomer started beating her up, punching her over and over again.

"You...son of a bitch...!" I said, aiming my arm at its head. The moment my HUD said "TARGET LOCK-ON," I fired one of my discs, flinching with the pain it caused to do so. The Boomer heard it coming, but didn't have time to react, for when it turned around to face me, the disc cleanly sliced off one of its arms, fluids gushing out of the stump. The Boomer let out a holler in both rage and in pain and started to charge towards me again. _Oh boy, here we go, _I thought, backing away from it.

The Boomer reached me quicker than I thought, and with its remaining arm, took a swing at me. I ducked just in time to avoid the punch and heard its fist smash into the wall. I tried to run away, as painful as it was to try, but the Boomer saw me and grabbed me by my neck. I gasped with surprise as he picked me up and turned me so I would face him.

"Just where do you think you were heading off to?" the Boomer growled, obviously a little more than pissed at me. He started squeezing my neck, choking the air out of me. I gasped and tried to wiggle out of the thing's grip, but it didn't work. Suddenly, I remembered something; there was still another weapon of mine that I hadn't used yet. I grinned and looked up into the Boomer's hideous face.

"Hey, think you could smile for the camera?" I asked.

"Camera?"

"Uh-huh. Say cheese," I said, grinning slyly as I opened up my pulse-strikers and activated them.

"What the hell are those?" it tried to ask, but couldn't; the pulse-strikers were already taking effect. When Sylia had told me that the glow in them would paralyze Boomers, I hadn't believed her, but that was exactly what they did. The Boomer immediately dropped me and backed off, trembling as it tried to resist the effect of them.

"Go to hell!!" I heard a familiar voice yell out as I saw a blue hardsuit leap out of nowhere and slap an S-Mine on the Boomer's torso. Mom leaped away just as fast and then, I felt someone wrap an arm around me and take me far enough away so as not to be hurt when the mine exploded.

As it did -- effectively wiping out the Boomer -- I wearily looked up to see who was holding me. It was Sylia.

"S...Sylia..." I whispered, just about ready to collapse right there.

"It's all right now, Yumeko. We're here." Mom appeared again, this time holding a very beat-up-looking Linna on her shoulder.

"What did the bastard do to you?" Mom asked, heavy concern in her voice.

"Beat us up," I said, getting to the point. "Can we get out of here now? Linna looks like she could use a doctor right now."

"So do you."

"Come on," Sylia said, helping me back to the van, and Mom helping Linna back as well. _What a night, _I thought, clenching my hand into a fist, flinching with the pain it caused, as it was my broken one. _I hope Linna's ok. I don't give a damn about myself, I just hope she herself wasn't too badly hurt... I'd rather not think about how badly she'd be hurt if she didn't have her suit on..._


	2. Fly vs elephant

Morning.

Like every morning the night after a Boomer battle, it felt like it was another crazy dream. But that thought didn't last long. Not with my injuries there to remind me. According to the doctor who'd examined me, I had no serious injuries, except for my right wrist, which ended up being broken in two places. I also had some minor burns on my back from the blast I took and a bunch of bruises all over, but other than that, I was fine. Sure didn't feel like it to me. I hardly got any sleep all night, tossing and turning because my body was so sore. As much as I was in pain, it probably didn't compare to what Linna was feeling right now. I thought about calling her to ask how she was feeling, but figured it would be best not to. She needed her rest right now.

"Gonna go to school today?" Mom asked after I got dressed.

"Yeah, might as well. It's not any worse than getting beat up by a Boomer. I'll live," I sighed, looking at my wrist, which was in a cast. I had to keep it on for four days to let it heal. That was one of the few things I thanked the advances in technology for; instead of having to keep the cast on for six weeks, I only had to keep it on for a few days.

"Sure you'll be okay? You don't look so hot."

"I'll be fine." I grabbed my backpack off of the couch and swung it onto my back, making me flinch with pain. This was not going to be a good day. I just knew it wouldn't be. I said goodbye to Mom and left, going out into the parking lot to get on my bike. I started it up, but then my back started aching, being haunched over the bike and all. Considering it was a ten-minute drive to school, I knew that wouldn't be good for it, so I decided to walk.

Walking the whole way to school didn't do wonders for my back either. It ached the whole way. Didn't matter if I had my backpack with me or not; it would hurt just the same either way. _Man, getting trashed by a Boomer really takes it out of ya, _I thought. _I can hardly stand up straight, my back hurts so much. If this is gonna happen all the time...my life's gonna be hell from here on out._ I yawned and continued walking. Funny, I couldn't remember it taking so long to get to school by walking. Either I was really walking slow, or it was because I hadn't actually walked to school in a long time.

I suddenly heard a car honking behind me. When I looked back at it, I quickly realized I'd wandered off the sidewalk and into the street. I yelped with surprise and jumped back onto the sidewalk. When did that happen? Wandering into the street? _Maybe I got a concussion in that fight too, _I thought.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally arrived at my school. Sighing with dread as I knew it wasn't going to be a good day, I walked inside and headed to class. _Who needs Boomers beating me up?_, I thought. _School is bad enough. Oh well, at least school can't beat me to death...I think..._

"Ms. Asagiri, you're late again," Mrs. Sasaki greeted me with when I walked into class.

"I know, ma'am," I mumbled.

"Do you know HOW late you are?" I looked at the clock. 8:13. Crud. Took a little longer than I thought to walk to school... I grimaced.

"Twenty-three minutes. Sorry, I had a lousy night, ok?"

"Just go sit down and get out your textbook," she said. I did so gladly, just wanting to sit down, lay down, anything that would make my back stop hurting so damn much.

Michiko, just across the aisle from me, leaned over and whispered, "What on earth happened to you? You look like crap."

"I feel like it."

"How'd you break your wrist?" she asked, motioning towards my cast.

"Trashed my bike," I lied.

"Ow. You gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, just need to lay down." I yawned again.

"If I were you, I woulda stayed home."

I was about to answer her, then bit my lip, as I was about to say coming to school isn't any worse than getting the pulp beaten out of you by a Boomer. "Er...Mom made me come. She said...it wouldn't kill me to go."

Mrs. Sasaki stopped talking to the rest of the class and focused her attention on us. "Ms. Ishiodori, Ms. Asagiri, are you paying attention?"

Michiko and I both straightened up in our desks at the sudden question, me grimacing with the pain it caused. "Yes, ma'am."

"We'll see when there's the quiz on Tuesday." She then continued her lecture. I sighed and laid my head on the desk. Hadn't we just had a quiz a few days ago? Oh well, I'd just ditch that day anyway. The last thing anyone needed was yet another moronic calculus quiz...

* * *

Most of the rest of the day passed by rather uneventfully, just the usual lectures and homework getting piled on us. I was almost home free; once I got home, I'd just collapse on the couch and take a long snooze. Until I remembered the last class of the day that I had: gym. _So much for home free,_ I thought. I couldn't change in front of everybody else in the locker room; they'd see the burns on my back and know for sure that I hadn't merely been in a motorcycle accident.

After English class, I ran as fast as I could to the locker room to change. Maybe if I got there early, I could be dressed in my gym uniform before anyone else got there. So I ran down the crowded hallway, just about knocking everybody else over about thirty times, but I got there. Opening my locker, I threw my backpack in and took out my gym shirt and shorts. I don't think anyone had ever changed so fast before in their lives at the pace I was going. Well, just when I was about to pull on my gym shirt, a group of girls walked in on me. I turned around when I heard the door open and saw them both gaping at me.

"What the hell happened to your back?" one of them, Maru, asked.

"I...stayed out in the sun too long and...got burned," I lied.

Maru crossed her arms over her bosom and grinned evilly. "Oh, so? How 'bout those bruises then, hmm?"

"Maybe she got roughed up by Masahiro," Maru's friend joked. I felt my face turn red.

"Who in their right minds would hop into bed with that jerk?" I shot back.

"Probably someone like you."

"You look more like the type that would do that."

"What about your girlfriend?"

"Leave Michiko out of this."

"Why should she?" Maru inquired. "Everyone knows that she was one of the first girls that Masahiro laid."

I felt the anger flare up in me. So what about Michiko? She was one of the first people to warn me about him. If it hadn't been for her, I might have ended up getting laid, too.

"Just leave her alone," I ordered through clenched teeth. "She's gone through enough and doesn't need the two of you to remind her of what she did."

"Sure she does. If we don't remind her about it, then she might just go out and start screwing a bunch of guys just like Masahiro is doing to all the girls." She paused and thought for a moment. "Who knows? Maybe she'll even go out and start screwing girls, too."

"What?! You sicko!!" I yelled, striding towards her and Maru. "You take that back!!"

"Touchy, touchy," Maru said sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"Touchy, am I!?" I decided to knock some sense into her. So, I gave her a good punch in the stomach, sending her to the ground. _Damn, that hurt, _I thought, realizing I'd just used the arm that was in a cast to punch her. Maru's friend stood there in shock, fuming.

"You bitch!!" she yelled, heading towards me. "Nobody hits a friend of mine without answering to me afterwards!!"

"Same with me about Michiko," I shot back. Maru picked herself off the floor, holding her stomach in pain.

"Ana, she kinda has a point!" she said.

"I haven't made mine yet!" Ana yelled back. "You watch!"

"Idiot!" Maru called as Ana headed towards me.

"Want a fight?" I asked. "Come and get me."

"That I will!" Her next move I wasn't anticipating, because suddenly, she hurled her fist at me, getting me right in my eye. I stumbled back as Ana grabbed me by both wrists and pinned me up against the wall. "Hopefully I've gotten my point across to you now."

Grabbing me by both wrists like that...it sent me reeling into a flashback of last night's Boomer fight. The sucker had grabbed me like that, and went on about how it wasn't done playing with Linna yet. It almost felt like I was actually there again. My whole body started to tremble as I felt a cold sweat run down the back of my neck. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched both hands into fists.

"NO!!" I screamed.

"Huh?!" I faintly heard Ana utter.

I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I do faintly remember screaming again, somehow breaking free of Ana's grip, and then I heard a piercing scream.

"Ana!!" I opened my eyes and saw Maru run towards a fallen Ana. I looked up at the lockers and saw blood splashed all over them. What had I just done? My eyes widened in fear as I looked again at Maru.

"Uh...uh...Maru?" I asked weakly. "What just happened?"

She looked up at me, spitting fire from her eyes. "What just happened?! Take a look!!" I looked down and saw blood all over Ana's face, her nose slightly disfigured. I did THAT?

"Look...I...I can explain..."

"Shut your hole!" she spat, then helped Ana to her feet. "C'mon, I'll take you to the nurse."

As she helped Ana out of the locker room, other girls started filing in, their eyes wide with fear. Some started to get dressed, while others walked over to me and asked what happened.

"I don't...know what happened," I muttered. "I just...snapped, I guess."

"You're in for it," they said.

"I bet," I said, nodding. I changed back into my regular clothes, snatched my backpack out of the now bloodstained locker, and walked out. Might as well go to the principal's office now. Chances were I'd be sent there anyway...

* * *

I walked up to Linna's apartment after school, needing to apologize for what happened the night before. As I figured, the principal bawled me out and suspended me from school for five days. I was practically grateful for such a long suspension. It'd give me time to heal from my wounds and reflect on what I'd done to Ana. Man, this sucked. If I could, I'd tell her why I'd lost it and broken her nose, but she wouldn't believe me either way. I could almost hear her saying it... "You had a traumatic experience with a Boomer, huh? Yeah right! You're just using that as an excuse to get out of trouble!"

Anyway, I knocked on the door and a second later, heard Linna sprinting towards it. She opened it and smiled.

"Oh, hello, Yumeko!" Linna exclaimed. "What brings you here?"

"I just...need to apologize for what happened last night."

"No, you don't need to." She then stared at my face intently, looking a bit concerned. "What happened to your eye?" I brought my hand up to it. It still hurt and was also swollen. Damn, Ana musta got me good or something...

"I got into a little fight at school."

"Come in and I'll get some ice for it." She stepped back and let me enter. I sat down on the couch and leaned back, my back protesting the sudden movement. I winced.

"Are you doing all right?" Linna asked as she brought me an ice pack. I took it from her and held it to my eye.

"Yeah, I'm doing ok, 'cept for my back."

"I'll be right back." She went to her cabinet and took out some lotion. "Take off your shirt and lay down."

"Huh? Why?"

"Just do it." I did so and laid on my stomach on the couch. Linna crouched down on the floor and unhooked my bra.

"What're you doing?!" I protested.

"Stay still," she said and squirted some lotion into her hands. After rubbing them together, she started to rub the lotion onto my sore back. I jumped.

"That's cold!"

She chuckled. "It's supposed to be. It helps better with your burns if it's cold." I relaxed and let her rub my back. Boy, did that feel good. Better than running around all day with it killing me, that's for sure. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Linna, I need to apologize for what happened last night. It was my fault for not getting there fast enough to help you," I said.

"It was my fault for not watching my back, Yumeko. Don't blame yourself. Actually, I'M sorry for not being able to help you while the Boomer was beating you up," she admitted. "But my shoulder is doing all right now. In two weeks, it'll be fine again. I just have to take it easy now. Don't worry about me."

"I can't help it. I shoulda been there to help you."

"Well, think of it this way: now you've been officially inducted into the Knight Sabers."

"What do you mean? I've been one the past month and a half."

"Not until you've had your first beating. It's a regular part of the job. I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it."

"Get used to getting my ass whooped every fight? No thanks."

"It won't happen every fight, but it still happens, unfortunately. But that's what happens when you face up against something that's five times bigger and stronger than you are."

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess so..."

Linna hooked my bra back on, stood up, and stretched. "Ok, you can put your shirt back on now."

"Ok." I got up and pulled it back on. "Do you need anything? I could go to the store and get you some painkillers if you want."

"No, no, that's ok," she laughed. "I'm just fine."

I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was five o'clock. Time to start for home. "I gotta get going, Linna."

"I didn't hear your motorcycle when you arrived. Did you use it to get here?"

"No, I took the bus. It hurts to use my bike cuz my back."

"Oh, I'll give you a ride then."

I reluctantly gave in and let her give me a ride home. On the way back to my apartment, Linna asked about the fight I got into at school, and I told her everything. She told me that fights weren't the way to solve problems, and laughing, she also said it reminded her of Mom, getting into fights because she saw someone get hurt.

After pulling up in front of the apartment complex, I hopped out of her car and said bye. Then I ran upstairs to the fourth floor, where our apartment was. Once I opened the door and stepped in, I saw Mom standing there, obviously waiting for me. She did not look too happy.

"Uh, what's up, Mom?" I asked.

"Yume," she said, walking up to me and holding up a very familiar-looking book, "would you happen to know what this is?"

"A book."

"Don't play games with me. I found this under your pillow today. I want to know why you took Nene's diary and read it without her permission."

I swallowed hard. "I...I was curious about...what happened to you!"

She sighed. "Why didn't you come to me and ask me about it first before going and stealing someone's personal belonging?"

"I didn't...want to bother you with it. I know you don't like to talk about it and..."

"If you were so curious about it, you should have come to me. I would have told you anything you wanted to know."

"When I do ask though, you always say you'll tell me when I'm older!!" I protested.

"That's because you weren't ready to hear it."

"What about now?"

"Now, I'm sure you're ready to hear it, but..."

"But what?"

"I don't know if I'M ready to tell you the full details of it yet." She sat down and took a breath.

"So...what do I do now?"

"The next time you see Nene, give the diary back to her and apologize for taking it."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

I sighed relief. "I thought for sure you were gonna go off on me hard!"

She smiled and laughed. "Now since when have I ever gone off on you, Yume dear?"

"Never, I guess!"

"Right. So why would I do it now?" Before I could answer, she suggested something. "Well, how about we go out tonight? You deserve something nice to do after getting beat up like you were."

"How about Italian?"

"All right. Let's go for Italian, then! Grab your jacket and we can go."

So we went out for dinner, to the fanciest Italian restaurant in town. I was a sucker for spaghetti and manicotti and all that stuff; how could I resist going? We both stuffed ourselves silly, topping it off with vanilla ice cream. I couldn't remember having a night like that in a while. And after we got home, I dropped off to sleep not thinking about the Boomer fight last night, or the school fight I got into today, but of the good times that lay ahead for me, and Mom, and Linna, and everybody else. _Life can't get better than this, _I thought. _With so many people around to support me, what can possibly go wrong?_

* * *

"Mackie!" I called out when I arrived at Raven's Garage. "Where are you?"

At the sound of my voice, he ran out of the back room and to the front. "Oh, Yumeko. What brings you here?"

"I need to try out the holographic simulator again."

"Why?"

"After what happened last week, I figured I should improve my fighting tactics. So turn it on and let me try it out. I can't get better if I don't practice!"

"Aren't you on Level Seven?"

"Yeah. So?"

"That's a hard level to beat. Even Priss was struggling on it when she reached it."

"All the more reason to try to beat it," I deadpanned. "So, can you start it up?"

Mackie sighed. "Ok, I'll do it. Your back still hurt?"

"It hurts a little, but it's ok. I got my cast taken off a few days ago too."

"Go change while I get it running. And don't blame me if you reinjure something. It was your idea, after all."

"Fine, fine." I ran into the changing room and changed into the measuring outfit. It had been a few months since I last was in that thing, but I still remembered how it made my body itch all over because it was so tight. After I was changed, I tied my hair back and met Mackie in the fighting room.

"You know the drill," he said over the intercom so I could hear. "Three holograms, three minutes to beat them."

"I know," I answered. After a few seconds, the familiar blue hologram appeared in front of me.

"Go!"

The hologram lashed one of its long tentacles at me, something it always did as a first move. I jumped over them and backed up as it moved towards me. Doing a back-handspring to dodge more tentacles, I then did a spinning kick in an attempt to defeat the thing, but I missed. It lashed out at me again, and I almost didn't catch the sudden move, for when it did lash out, it went for my head. I ducked them and delivered a swift punch to its torso. It disappeared and another one took its place. It lashed out at me over and over as I went dodging all of them. At one point, I tripped and fell, and when its tentacles went to strike me, I rolled under the hologram and kicked it, making it disappear as well.

"Sixty seconds left," Mackie warned.

"Ok!" I called to him as the last hologram appeared. I didn't want to waste more time than I had to, so I decided to try to take it out right away.

Bad move. I was just jumping over the hologram to take it out from behind, but out of nowhere, a long tentacle shot out of its torso and caught me in the stomach. It surprised me so much that I forgot I was still in mid-air, and I ended up crashing to the floor, landing hard on my shoulder.

"Eliminated," Mackie said over the intercom.

"Oww," I moaned, rubbing my shoulder, trying to get up. "Stupid god damn hologram snuck up on me again."

Mackie noticed my shoulder and said over the intercom, "I told you to try not to reinjure anything, Yumeko."

"It wasn't injured before."

"Well, either way. Just try to be careful next time."

I walked into the changing room and got back into my normal clothes, which wasn't exactly comfortable to do, considering my now-bruised shoulder. Mackie asked if I needed an ice pack for it, but I said no. Just getting on my bike, the phone rang, and he went to get it.

"Hello, Raven's Garage. Oh, hi Sis. Yeah. Yeah, she's here." I looked up at him. What was going on now? "Ok. I'll be there... Huh? Oh, yeah, here she is. Hold on."

"What's going on?" I asked.

He held out the phone to me. "Sis wants to talk with you."

I took the phone. "Sylia?"

"Yumeko, I'd like you to sit out this fight."

My face fell. "What? Why? I'm healed, so why should I sit it out?"

"We won't need all five of us going out to fight this one. It's another BU-55C, so it won't take all of us to defeat it."

"But Linna hasn't healed yet. She's going with you?"

"No, it'll be just Nene, Priss, and myself."

"I should be there for backup at least, shouldn't I?"

"Don't try to argue, Yumeko. Just sit this one out, all right?" she asked, starting to sound a little impatient.

"Fine," I groaned and hung up.

* * *

"I don't see why they told me to come over here," I grumbled, folding my arms over my knees and resting my chin on them.

"They don't want you following them into battle when they told you not to, that's all," Linna said as she sat down next to me on the couch. "So I have to watch you and make sure you don't do just that."

"What makes you think I'd do that?"

"Well, we all know how much you love going into battle to kill Boomers. Also, it just might run in the family."

"Mom may have done that a few times, but that doesn't mean I'm going to, too. I'm not her."

"You never know," she said, smiling.

"It's not fair, having to come over here and be babysat just because of something Mom had a tendency to do."

"Don't worry. It won't take them long. Soon your 'torture' will be over and you can carry on as usual." She walked over to the TV and turned it to the news.

"They might need me if something goes wrong. That's all I'm worried about."

"We've been doing this for so long, Yumeko. I'm sure nothing is going to go wrong. So just stop worrying and kick back."

I sighed and concentrated on watching the news while Linna went into the kitchen to grab a snack. _What if something does go wrong, though?, _I thought. _They won't be able to call me so I can go help them if they do need help._ On the news, a reporter was talking about how the Boomer was on a rampage in District 11, and that the SWAT team seemed to have their hands full fighting it. Personally, I thought the reporter was an idiot for what she was doing. Doing a report live at the scene?! If I were her, I'd get my ass outta there pretty quick. I almost laughed at the thought of the Boomer appearing right behind her. _Boy, that'd be a way to go. Get killed on live television. Talk about getting attention. _I yawned and leaned back. Figured that they wouldn't mention the Knight Sabers. Don't want to give any credit to the real heroes here. The SWAT team would probably just take all of it, saying, "Oh, they only destroyed it because we were there to keep it busy." Lazy assholes. Made me sick.

"I'm going to take a shower, ok?" Linna said as she walked towards the bathroom.

I turned around. "Ok. Don't worry, I won't go anywhere," I joked.

"There's some snacks in the cupboard in case you get hungry," she said before closing the door.

I sat there on the couch for a while longer, still watching the news, hoping that they would say that the Boomer had been destroyed. But on the updates on the situation, the reporter said it was still on the rampage. Where were the Sabers? They should've destroyed it by now. Maybe they were in trouble, just like I hoped against.

"We have another update on the situation," the reporter said. I looked up wearily at the TV screen, thinking they'd say for the fifth time that the Boomer still was on the run. "The Boomer has, as of yet, still not been destroyed," --as I thought-- "but we have just found out that it has moved out of District 11 and is now heading for a residential area of District 10." I jumped up out of my seat. District 10? That was here!! What the hell were we gonna do?! I ran to the bathroom door to tell Linna we should leave, but at that very moment, the electricity went out.

"Hey!!" I heard Linna exclaim from behind the bathroom door. "What gives?!"

"Linna, I have to tell you something," I said. "On the news, they were saying that the Boomer is heading for this area!! We have to get outta here!!"

"Ok, hold on!" I heard her hurrying into her clothes and after a minute, she emerged, traces of shampoo in her hair still evident. "Personally, I think it'd be safer to stay here rather than be on the streets where the Boomer is."

"But—" At that moment, we both heard gunshots coming from outside. Screeching tires could be heard as frantic people tried to get away in their cars, accompanied by screaming and more gunfire. My heart seemed to stop.

"Too late," I whispered, my voice barely audible.

Linna looked almost as scared as I felt. Her eyes were wide and her skin paled as she heard the screams and gunfire. And yet, she managed to usher me into her bedroom and into the closet. After we were both inside, she closed the door and whispered, "Now don't move, ok? Let Sylia and the others handle it. They should be right behind it. Just stay here and don't move."

"All those people, though... They don't stand a chance. What about them?"

"We can't help them. We can only hope the Sabers come in time. I'm sorry, but if we could help them, God knows we'd go out and help them, Yumeko."

We sat there in that stuffy closet for what seemed like forever. Even in there, I could still hear the gunshots and screaming from outside. I covered my ears and closed my eyes, trying to block it out, but it didn't work. Suddenly, I heard a loud explosion that made the walls shake. Linna and I both yelped in surprise; it was almost like the Boomer had blown a hole clear through Linna's bedroom wall. Neither of us dared to check, of course.

Finally, after listening to the continuous screaming and gunfire and still no obvious sign of the Sabers from what I could hear, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"I can't take it anymore," I said. "I'm going out."

"What?!" Linna yelled. "No way!!"

"I'm not gonna let that thing hurt any more people." I made my way out of the closet -- which wasn't easy, considering Linna was nearest the door and she was trying to hold me back -- and then went to my coat and took a gun out of the inside pocket. Mom had gotten it for me after that female Boomer had attacked me a few months back, "just in case something like that happens again," she said. Out of another pocket, I took out a pistol grenade...just the thing for taking out Combat Boomers. I seriously doubted it would kill the Boomer, considering that it took more than a mere grenade to kill one the first time around, but hopefully it would buy enough time for Mom, Nene, and Sylia to arrive and do the real work. Attaching the grenade to the gun, I opened the front door, peeked my head outside to make sure the coast was clear, and then ran out.

"Where are you, you bastard?" I mumbled under my breath. I got my answer right away, for right after I said that, I heard another explosion, followed by gunfire. I peeked around the corner of the building and saw the Boomer stomping on a car -- while the occupants of it were still inside. I gasped and backed away, clenching the gun in both hands. There'd been no sign of even the damn SWAT team. _Where are those morons?, _I thought. _They want their chance for glory, here it is._

"Yumeko," I heard Linna half-whisper, half-yell from behind me, "get back in here, now!"

I ignored her and listened for the Boomer's next movements. If it dared come around the corner I was at, it was gonna be in for a big surprise. I waited some more, but heard nothing. I stood there semi-patiently, knowing that it couldn't stay silent for long. Sure enough, I was right, but the gunfire didn't come from in front of me this time. It was from BEHIND. I spun around just in time to see the monstrous figure stomp on more cars and blast fleeing people with its mouth cannon.

"Ohhhh shit," I said out loud, my feet glued to the asphalt. The Boomer turned around at that moment, as if it had heard me curse aloud, and walked calmly in my direction. I managed to back away, though my feet didn't want to do the same for some odd reason, and aimed at the sucker's torso. It started firing at me rapidly, as if it thought I posed any threat at all, even with a measly gun and grenade. I ducked behind a car and waited for it to stop.

It did, but not for long.

I heard another one, a single shot -- probably from its mouth cannon, I was guessing -- and then the car I was hiding behind blew up. I screamed with surprise and jumped back, unscathed from the explosion, but quite shaken up. The Boomer then aimed at me again, and I took that moment to aim my gun at it. At the exact moment I fired the grenade, the Boomer also shot at me. I managed to hit the Boomer almost dead-on, making its chest explode, thanks to the grenade, but unfortunately, I could almost say the same for myself. Right after I had fired the grenade, I felt something slam into my shoulder, enough to make me drop to the ground, gritting my teeth with the pain. I clutched my injured shoulder and looked up, only to see the Boomer get up and head towards me again.

Almost as if it was their cue, Sylia, Mom, and Nene chose that very moment to show up, much to my relief, considering I thought I was gonna be turned into mincemeat by the Boomer. It tried to fire at all of us at the same time, but Nene knocked me down while the others easily dodged the beams and then attacked. It was all over in a matter of seconds, for after Mom fired her needles into the Boomer, pinning it to the wall, Sylia ran and cut it in half from the legs up through the head.

"Um, just wondering," I said, rubbing my shot shoulder after it was over, "could you guys have POSSIBLY cut it any closer than that?!"

"Probably," Nene said, trying to lighten the mood, but Sylia cut in.

"I specifically told you to sit out this one."

"I couldn't just sit there and let all those people get killed," I retorted. "Maybe if I'd been with you guys, I could've helped you put it down before it got this far. It almost killed Linna and me!!"

"Just drop it, Yume," Mom said calmly. "It's done with, so just let it go."

"But...but..."

"Let it go," she repeated. "Where's Linna?"

"She's right here," Nene called out, leading a shaken Linna out of her apartment. When she looked up and saw me, her face immediately brightened and ran to me.

"Yumeko, are you ok?!"

"Oh, fine, just a shot shoulder, no biggie," I said sarcastically. In reality, my shoulder was killing me. First I bruised it fighting on the holographic simulator, and now it was shot by a Boomer. Oh, what a great day I was having.

In the distance, police sirens could be heard. Sylia and the others heard them as well, and ordered everyone except Linna and me to disperse. She and Nene disappeared out of sight, but Mom stayed. I could tell just from the way she was standing and looking in my direction that she didn't want to leave, not when I was hurt and all.

"Priss, I'll take her to the hospital to get treated," Linna said. "Don't worry."

Mom looked from her back to me, but didn't say anything.

"I'll take care of it," Linna repeated. "You better go before the police get here."

"Mom, I'll be ok," I said, still holding my shoulder, which was by now saturated in blood. Ok…ha. If only it were that simple...

"Are...you sure?" she asked finally.

"You can meet us at the hospital once you're out of your suit, ok?" Linna suggested. Mom just stood there for a moment, trying to decide whether she should, and then she slowly nodded and turned to leave.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," she said, turning to me before reluctantly leaving, jumping over the apartment complexes before disappearing.

Just after she went out of sight, police cars pulled to a stop behind Linna and me.

* * *

"OWW!!" I screamed as the doctor played around with my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Yumeko," he said. "I got the bullet out. The worst part's over."

"Damn, do you hafta yank so hard though?!"

"It was in there deep, so I had to use the pliers."

"Geez." I rubbed my shoulder again. I'd been sitting on the examining table for half an hour now while the doctor poked and prodded my shoulder to figure out where exactly the bullet was. Didn't help matters any that it was still bleeding a bit, of course. And after several failed attempts at trying to pry the bullet out with the pliers, my shoulder was hurting so much, I figured having the whole arm amputated would hurt less than it did now. Hadn't the stupid doctors ever heard of anesthesia?!

"Alright, now hold still," he said. "Just keep your arm down and don't move." He took out a cotton ball and a bottle of iodine, soaked the ball in the iodine, and started swabbing the wound with it. I grimaced as my hands clutched to the table in an effort to not hit the doctor for what he was doing. God, did that hurt!!

"That really hurts, y'know," I said through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry, but I have to sterilize the wound so I can close it up and bandage it. Don't want there to be any infections, do we?" he asked.

At that moment, I heard a slight commotion outside in the waiting room. I heard someone run in and ask where her daughter was. Recognizing the voice as Mom's, I called out to her, and she came running into the room, looking exhausted and concerned at the same time.

"Yume, you ok?"

I smiled, hard as it was with the doctor swabbing my shoulder. "Yeah, I'm managing."

The doctor looked up at Mom, asking, "You're Priss Asagiri, I presume?"

"Wow, first time in a while I've seen somebody that doesn't know me right away at first sight," she quipped. "Yeah, that's me."

"Your daughter got quite a scare tonight. We're lucky she only got shot in the shoulder and not anywhere else."

"I know. Damn Boomers running around all the time..."

As the doc put on some latex gloves, took out some jelly-looking stuff, and started to swab some over my wound, he said, "Yumeko's going to have to take it easy for a few days. Try to discourage her from using her right arm as much as possible. It's going to have to be in a sling for a week or two so as to stabilize her shoulder so it can heal. After that, try to have her exercise it a bit so it can get back some muscle. Then, she should be fine."

I spoke up. "You could've just said that to me, y'know. I'm not deaf." I eyed the jelly stuff that he was rubbing onto my shoulder and asked, "What IS that stuff, anyway?"

"Surgical glue. It helps replace stitches when closing wounds."

"I didn't have surgery though."

"It's still very helpful. It has several advantages over regular stitches. First, it acts as a sealant so as to not let the injury get infected. Secondly, it contains special proteins that help promote healing, and also reduces scarring. And third, you won't have to go through the pain of getting the stitches removed."

"I'll second that," Mom said, grinning. I agreed. Anything would be better than going through the pain of getting stitches or staples or whatever yanked out. Getting a bullet yanked out was bad enough.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot," he said, wrapping my shoulder in a bandage, "Try to avoid washing your shoulder, Yumeko. The surgical glue will come off if you do."

"How long do I hafta keep the stuff on?" I asked.

"If there are no complications and it heals properly, then you may feel free to wash it off after about a week and a half." He put my arm in a sling and adjusted it so it would fit me, then allowed me to get off the table. "Any more questions?"

"Do I get any painkillers?" Hey, I was sure to need it sometime, and with as bad as my shoulder was still hurting, I would probably use up two or three bottles in one day...!

"Regular aspirin should work."

As Mom and I walked out of the examining room, Linna ran up to us and asked how it went. When we said it went ok, she just kept saying, "Thank God. Oh, thank God." And as we walked outside so we could go home, I made a remark about that.

"Gee Linna, I didn't know you were so religious," I quipped.

"It's true though!" she said as Mom and I cracked up. After a moment, she sighed and said, "Well, I'm glad to see you still have a sense of humor."

"That's the key to recovery; gotta keep your sense of humor," I said winking.

"Linna, you can stay at our place if you want," Mom said suddenly, "knowing how trashed your place is and everything..."

"Thank you," Linna said. "It won't be too long, I hope, probably just for a few days so they can clean everything up."

I changed the subject abruptly. "So...why does Genom want to keep sending out Boomers, anyway? Isn't it kind of pointless if we keep coming out and destroying them?"

"Genom wants to take over this dump," Mom said, sighing. "By sending out Boomers to trash the place, they're trying to get people so afraid of living there that they'll sell their land, and Genom will use that land to build more factories and crap. So basically, you could say they want to rule the world. Classic villain thing."

"And we all know that more factories mean more Boomers," Linna added. "And that also means more money for them. So they'll just keep growing and growing until there's nothing left but them."

"Some Boomers are good, but most are bad from what I've seen. Like Sylia said, there's some kind of balance that's gotta be kept. Genom does good things as well as bad, and we're there to cancel out the bad. I just think the whole place is rotten to the core."

We kept walking down the street towards Mom's and my apartment, talking all the while. I wondered aloud that taking over the world would be completely pointless, because if Genom wanted to expand, they'd have to destroy everything. And if everything was destroyed, what would there be to 'rule' over? Both Linna and Mom agreed with me more or less on that point.

And then suddenly, Mom just stopped walking and peered down an alley, completely lost in whatever thoughts were going through her head. I tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mom, what's wrong?" I inquired. Mom didn't answer, but only kept looking down the alley.

"Priss...?" Linna said. "Are you all right?"

Mom stood there for a few minutes, then just squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head vigorously, as if to get certain thoughts out of her head.

"I'm...fine," she said, turning and striding down the street.

"Priss?" Linna ran to catch up with her, and I followed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she said, in a voice so flat and unemotional that I had to look twice to make sure it was Mom that had actually said it.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure." She continued down the street.

"What's with your mom, Yumeko?" Linna asked me as Mom walked up the stairs to our apartment.

"...I can guess what's up," I answered. The way Mom had looked down that alley...it had obviously brought back painful memories for her. I knew perfectly why, too. I mean, what else would have happened in a backstreet alley besides her 'confrontation' with my mystery father?


End file.
